


You're Gonna Be Okay, Kid

by SevenSoulmates



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: Canon Compliant, Established Relationship, Gen, Graduation, M/M, Ten Years Later, christopher centric
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-27
Updated: 2020-04-27
Packaged: 2021-02-23 04:13:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23872147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SevenSoulmates/pseuds/SevenSoulmates
Summary: "When I was eight years old, my step dad took me to the Santa Monica pier.
Relationships: Christopher Diaz & Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Evan "Buck" Buckley & Christopher Diaz & Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Evan "Buck" Buckley & Christopher Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV), Evan “Buck” Buckley/Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Comments: 45
Kudos: 701





	You're Gonna Be Okay, Kid

**Author's Note:**

> hope you enjoy!

It's been 10 years.

"Everyone please give a warm welcome to the graduating class of 2030's Valedictorian, Christopher Buckley-Diaz!"

Christopher is 18 years old and he is graduating high school. He looks up into the stands as he walks up the stage and sees his entire family watching him from the stands. His dad and his abuela. He sees Buck and the rest of their 118 family. He sees his grandparents and cousins and tías. Carla is there as well, even though she hadn't been his formal nurse in years. And he sees his mom too. She's there, standing right next to his dad in spirit. Smiling down at Christopher with proud tears in her eyes. 

His dads are cheering louder than anyone else in the stadium, even louder than his idiot best friends, Denny Wilson and Harry Grant, who snuck in airhorns under their gowns to blast when all their names were announced.

As Christopher finally makes it to the podium, crutch on one arm, he takes a deep breath and steps in front of the microphone. He starts off his valedictorian speech like any other would. Congratulating his class, commenting on the times they spent and what they were to look forward to whether their next step be higher education, or a job or just simply existing in the adult world.

But then he tells the story he's been waiting to tell for a decade.

"When I was eight years old, my step dad took me to the Santa Monica pier."

The crowd hushes. They had no clue where this story was leading, except for his family in the stands, and his dads with their jaws hanging open. Christopher hadn't let them know what he was writing for his speech. His dad worried he was pulling another May Grant and slandering his father, but Buck had assured him that Christopher would never, all while winking and whispering as his dad left "if you wanna roast him, tell everyone of the time we were on a call and he accidentally fell off the first story roof, bounced off the trampoline and landed in the pool." Buck tried to stifle his laugh and ran out when his dad called for him. "Classic," Chris and Buck both said, fist bumping before Eddie came back in to snatch his husband away.

"Back then, he wasn't my step dad, but my dad's fellow firefighter. And I was a little boy who had just lost his mom in a car crash."

Christopher pauses, letting the familiar ache for his mother wash over him, his eyes watering for just a moment before he looks again to the empty spot left for her. He feels her warmth wash over him, encouraging him gently. He smiles and continues.

"My dad has always been my rock. He felt like he always had to be strong for me, so hid his feelings away. Pretended he didn't feel anything, despite all the grief he experienced every day on and off the job." 

He smiles at his dad who is gripping Buck's hand. Christopher knows he's trying not to cry, but will likely lose the battle. He had crafted this speech just for them. 

"All my life I wanted to be just like my dad. But my dad didn't want me to be like him. He didn't want me to hide what I was feeling. To stifle my emotions and push my pain down. He wanted me to feel safe, always, even if he couldn't always protect me from the world."

His dad is crying now, and Buck has laced his fingers together with his dads, bringing Eddie's fingers up to kiss adoringly. Christopher's heart swells. There was never a better person to love his father than Buck. Christopher knew it almost as soon as he met Buck, and the man continued to prove his love and dedication for them both for years to come. Christopher would forever be grateful for all that Buck has done to help his father heal. Christopher remembers how he never seen his father cry until he was 11 years old. They were watching a movie together, Christopher doesn't even remember what but he remembers looking up and seeing his dad cry in front of him for the first time and Christopher couldn't love his dad more. He buried into his side and Buck teased him with a smile but kissed his father's cheek, wiping his own tears. His father had always been loving and caring, but Chris got to watch him become gentle and open, more expressive with his emotions. It made his heart swell with pride for his fathers.

"That day 10 years ago on the pier started off bright. Buck and I played games. He won me a teddy bear and bought me the sweetest strawberry cotton candy. We rode the spinning carts at least 10 times and I only gagged once." Christopher chuckles at the memory. He wishes that the only memories he had of that day were those beautiful ones. 

"Buck sat on the benches, and I was standing, looking over the railing at the shimmering water. Buck had his hand bunched in the back of my shirt to make sure I never fell, and I never worried once because I knew if I slipped he'd be there to catch me. He asked me that day "Do you ever think about what you wanna do with your life? What you wanna be when you grow up?"

The crowd groans at the familiar question and Christopher laughs along. "I probably said something any kid would, like an astronaut or the president. But then I thought about my dad, and all the amazing things he did every single day. And I looked down at my new best friend who worked right alongside my dad every day and I knew my final answer was a firefighter. Even then, somewhere deep down, I knew that wasn't in the cards for me, but in my head I just knew I wanted to be someone who saved people. Someone who made a positive difference in other people's lives. However I could."

"Buck said to me "even if that doesn't work out, I hope you do find something you love. Something that makes you feel like you matter. Because when you do, that will show you who you are. And that is the best feeling."

Christopher can't bring himself to look at the crowd as he moves into the next part of his story.

"I felt like I could do anything in that moment. I didn't feel like just a kid with cerebral palsy, someone who would grow up with limitations his entire life. I felt excited for what laid ahead in my life."

Christopher pauses. "And what laid ahead was a tsunami."

The auditorium is deafeningly silent, as Christopher had expected it would be when he finally spoke of this.

"Buck grabbed me and sprinted away from the wave as fast as he could. When he realized that there was nowhere we could run fast enough, he hide me. It swept us away entirely."

Christopher tries not to shake thinking about this. He had been working on this speech for months, writing and rewriting. Trying to get every detail right. He had tried not to think about that day for so long, but he had to.

"All I could think in that moment was... _ where did all the water come from _ ? I couldn't tell whether I was up or down. If I was swimming towards air or towards my death. I somehow managed to break the surface and breathe, and I managed to latch onto a telephone pole. And I screamed for Buck. I screamed for my dad and I screamed for my mom. There was just…" Christopher swallows, lingering saltwater still staining his tongue even years later, " _ so much water." _

"Buck found me. He saved me and he brought me on top of a ladder truck. He saved dozens of other people, drowning people. He saved everyone who crossed our path. Diving back into the water over and over despite the fact that he was hurt himself."

The crowd claps and cheers in respect. Christopher chances a glance up and smiles weakly.

"We sat atop that firetruck for hours in the harsh sun. The water rose and the water receeded. We played I spy to pass the time--and let me tell you I am the  _ ultimate _ I spyer. Buck had nothing on me."

The crowd laughs. Christopher laughs too. He didn't know it back then but he knew now what Buck had done for him, in the little things. He talked a lot about it with them when he was in therapy when he was a bit older. Buck wanted to shield him from the sights and he was right to. He saved Chris in so many ways.

"Buck told me he was amazed by me. He was going through a hard time back then, the likes of which I didn't really truly understand until years later, but he said he was so amazed because even after all that had happened to me in my life before that day, and even then caught in the middle of a tsunami with no guarantee we'd live another day. "You just kept on swimming," he said." Christopher looked up and at Buck. 

"Like Dory," Christopher said, watching as Buck mouthed the same thing with a watery smile.

"That was what I told myself. When the waters rushed again and I fell back in the water, I told myself to just keep swimming. Just like Buck said. I wanted to make him proud. I wanted him to be amazed by me again, once he found me again. Because not even for one second did I doubt he would find me again. So that's what I did. I kept swimming and I repeated it to myself over and over again. Just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming. Keep swimming back to Buck. Keep swimming back to Dad. Don't leave him when he needed me most, when my Mom had died so recently. In that moment I had no choice but to save myself."

"I held on to another pole, that was all I knew how to do, and I waited. Eventually the waters receeded to the point where I could try to walk but it was so hard and I was so tired. A nice woman by the name of Gabriella saw me struggling to walk, screaming Buck's name over and over, picked me up and carried me miles in the dark until we reached the medical tents where I was reunited with my dad who was working search and rescue. Saving lives just like he has every day of his life."

More cheers echo throughout, applauding Eddie and all he had done for everyone.

"Buck searched for me for hours. Through injury and severe blood loss and every sign pointing to me being gone forever. He never gave up. And even though he didn't find me in the end, I found him. We saved each other that day. I've asked myself the same question he asked me just before the wave hit so many times over the years. Have I found what I want to do? Have I found what makes me feel like I matter? I thought I wanted to be a firefighter just like my dads for as long as I can remember but I've long since decided I did not want to live through any more tsunamis. But what I failed to realize is I've experienced many tsunamis in my life. Losing my mom. Nearly losing my dads, my aunts and uncles and grandparents on multiple occasions. Having my heart broken for the first time. Failing my first class. But I lived through each and every one of them because I followed the one rule I will carry with me through whatever else may happen in the future. Whether it's a tsunami or a light drizzle, I will always keep swimming. I will always fight to come home to my family. Because I matter. I matter to myself and to my family. I matter to my friends and my teachers. I don't need a profession to find my life's purpose in order to feel like I matter because the best people in my life have taught me that no matter what I do or don't do, I will always matter. And you all matter too, no matter where you go after graduation. So no matter what tsunamis try to wash you away, class of 2030, keep swimming. Just keep swimming. Thank you."

The crowd erupts into enormous roars of applause. Christopher hears the chants begin and it nearly makes him cry. He looks up at his family in the stands and every single one of them are cheering, smiling through streaming tears and looking at him with a much love he almost can't process it.

The rest of the ceremony passes in a blur of names and faces and then he's being engulfed by his dads and his grandparents and his tías and tíos and cocooning him in all of it is his mom. They hug him and kiss his cheeks and pat his head and shoulders and back and squeeze him half to death.

His graduation party is held at his house. It's jam packed full of people and Christopher spends most of the evening flittering between family and friends and acquaintances and classmates. They ask him about his speech, about his college plans, about what he plans to do with his life after this. His dad and Buck hang back for most of it, talking with Auntie Maddie and Uncle Chim who were expecting yet another baby soon. They let Christopher have his space to enjoy his moment. But when he walks up to them, holding is arms out, their hugs linger longer and sweeter than any other.

When the night has whined down and people have started to leave, it's just him and his dads, sitting on the couch, they're cuddling and watching a movie all together. Just like old times before Christopher got too old to be spending all his time with his old men. Preferring to spend his time working on his art, hanging with his friends and worrying about college. But they ate dinner together every night and every Saturday night was Buckley-Diaz movie night without fail.

"I had no idea you remembered all of that day so clearly," Buck says when the movie has come to a close but none of the trio has moved. Buck reaches forward and takes Christopher's hand. "You never mentioned it. I tried  _ so hard _ to shield you from it all."

Eddie leans forward and kisses Buck on the cheek, swiping tears away with the pad of his thumb. "You did everything you could,  _ corazon. _ You have nothing to be guilty about."

Buck grits his teeth and purses his lips. "There's so much more I could've done."

Christopher grips Buck's hand. "Do you know why I wrote my speech about that day?"

Buck looks up. "Because I just so happened to be asking you about what you wanted to be when you grew up?"

Eddie flicks his shoulder with his hand and Christopher leans forward. "I choose to write about that day not because I almost died, but because I lived. Because you saved me, Bucky." Buck chuckles wryly at the name. Chris hasn't called him that in a while, preferring Buck or Dad.

"But more importantly you made me feel like I could save myself."

Eddie reaches forward and strokes Christopher's cheek. "Ay  _ mijito,  _ I can't believe my baby son is an adult now. I'm so proud of you. Of both of you."

Buck's crying. Christopher leans forward and wraps him in a hug. Eddie cradles both of them gently but firm from his spot on the other side of Chris.

"I'm sorry." Buck managed to choke almost his tears. 

"I'm not," Christopher says. "You didn't just become my step dad the day you married my dad. You have been my dad every single day since that day on the pier." He squeezes Buck and cries quietly with him. 

"I love you so much, kid," Buck says, pressing a kiss to his forehead like he used to when he was younger. 

"I love you too, kid," Chris says with a smile. He turns his gaze to Eddie and gives an even wider grin. "And I love you too, dad." He pulls Eddie in and hugs him just as tightly, their group bear hug snug and warm. He can't believe it's been ten years. It feels like the blink of an eye. He lets it all wash over him, all that he's lost and all that he's gained. Chris couldn't be more grateful for his family.

And on Christopher's first day of college, when Eddie and Buck drop him off, he hugs his dads tight and leaves knowing that they've given him all the tools he needs to live his life how he wants to.

Right as they're about to leave, Christopher hears a woman standing near Eddie and Buck say to them, "You have an adorable family."

Eddie and Buck, holding hands, look over at him. Christopher smiles and answers her. "Yeah. We do."

  
  
  



End file.
